First of all, happy 2023! I hope you have all had a great New Year's and holiday season and are coming back a bit more rested and ready for more fun with data.
Duh! I knew better...
This post is inspired by those silly little 'duh' moments that I've encountered over the past year. You know the ones I mean - you spend hours searching for a feature or how to do something, only to find out that you missed a simple tick box.
Some of these moments are courtesy of my students, myself, or my colleagues. No matter how much you think you know about Power BI, there's always more to learn. If you've had a 'duh' moment, please tell me about it. I'll add it to this post so others can learn from it too (you can choose to remain anonymous or get credit / link to your own site or blog).
Preview Features Need to be Enabled
When you get a new computer, or install Power BI for the first time, check the 'Preview Features' and enable any that you think look useful.
If you're a basic user of Power BI, you may have no idea what a 'preview feature' means. They're the new stuff that Microsoft have just introduced, but need to test out and work out all the bugs before they can publish to 'default' settings. With monthly Power BI updates, preview features are an important part of the development cycle and they often come with a link to share your feedback. See an example here of the Feedback Page for the DirectQuery for PBI datasets and AS preview feature.
Even if you're a seasoned Power BI user, it can be easy to get caught out by long standing preview features. I recently got a new computer and have started with a fresh, clean install of Power BI desktop. That means all my 'Global' options have reverted back to default, and my previously enabled preview features need to be re-enabled. Okay, fine. That makes perfect sense. What I didn't realize was that Direct Query for Power BI datasets is still in preview mode!
I've been playing with DirectQuery for PBI datasets for years, so didn't think to check the preview features. I started with a Google search for "power bi make changes to this model missing" which led me to search through Microsoft Learn and the Power BI community to no avail. No where was there mention of it being in preview still. Eventually I found a really old blog post that told me to enable the preview feature. I checked thinking that I would have no luck with this solution too, but sure enough the preview feature was there. I ticked the box, restarted Power BI, and voila! have the option to make changes to my Power BI live dataset connection.
To Enable Power BI Preview Features
To enable Power BI preview features;
Open a new Power BI desktop file.
Click File > Options & Settings > Options
Select 'Preview features' under 'Global'.
Tick the box next to any preview features you wish to enable.
Click 'Ok'.
Get Data from Folder
"Does Power BI have a get data from folder option?" is one of my top requests in Power BI courses.
Okay, no one actually says that. They don't yet know the name of the feature they're searching for - which is what places it in the top 'duh!' moments of 2022. Common questions my students have asked include:
How do I copy data and paste it to the bottom of a table?
Can Power BI add new data to the end of a table?
I want to copy paste data into one spreadsheet each week, then load that into Power BI.
How do I combine lots of different files into one Power BI table?
Some who know a bit more about Power Query or Power BI may even ask:
What's the best way to append data in Power BI?
Regardless of how you phrase it, if you want to take lots of files that have the same column headings and pull them into a single report, the 'Get data from folder' option is likely what you need. This feature deserves a blog post of its own, so I'll publish that later this month on the how to.
